Alternative Futures
by BlackEbony17
Summary: Ben, Gwen and Kevin have just watched one of the original Ben 10 episodes 'Ben 10,000'. Kevin gets mildly depressed thinking he will revert back to the Dark Side, so Gwen takes to reassuring him that all will be fine. However, along the way she discover


_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Ben 10 character's they Belong to Man of Action. Much credit to him.**_

_**Ben, Gwen and Kevin have just watched one of the original Ben 10 episodes**_** '**_**Ben 10,000'. Kevin gets mildly depressed thinking he will revert back to the Dark Side, so Gwen takes to reassuring him that all will be fine. However, along the way she discovers something unexpected.**_

Alternative Futures

The TV screen flickered off and Kevin sighed. "What's wrong?" Gwen asked, "Nothin'" he replied "Kev c'mon, something's wrong and I know it. So tell me." "Fine" said Kevin, taking hold of her wrist and pulling her out of the living room, "It's just that you and Ben are still gonna be fightin' bad guys in the future and I... I'm not." He said in a muted tone, "Oh Kev" Gwen replied, taking his hands in her own. "You know you'll still be with us, She didn't say anything about you. For all we know you could have just gone away on some plumbers business..." Kevin opened his mouth to interrupt, but Gwen continued "Besides you heard what Paradox said, that the future isn't set in stone. Things Change." Kevin mumbled something unintelligible, Still unconvinced "Alright, I've got something to show you then." She pulled him back into the living room. "Ben" she grabbed his arm and jerked him to his feet, "We're going on a little trip" "OK, Where to?" Ben asked "The Future." She replied.

Pulling the two boys with her, Gwen ascended the stairs and into her room, she released their arms, knelt down on the carpet and reached under her bed, when she withdrew her hands, she held a small silver box. She took off the lid and pulled out the shimmering purple and gold book. "Here" she tossed it carelessly to her cousin "Find me the time travel spell" Ben complied then passed it back to her, Gwen recited it, she words ringing with power. Then a glowing pink gash appeared on the wall in front of them. Gwen took Kevin's hand again and pulled both him and her cousin through it. The world on the other side was different to the world they were used to; it was mainly metal, the sidewalks, the buildings, the flying vehicles. All made of some type of metallic substance, each different to one another, The civilians walking -or in some cases flying- by each bore a resemblance to an off worldly being, only a few were actually human and those who were hovered meters off the metal floor on flying skateboards and other machines.

"Wait, what are we doing back here?" Ben asked "You'll see." Said Gwen "Over there" she pointed to one of the many tall buildings, this one was different to the rest, taller, more symbolic. The round build at the top was modelled to look specifically like the badges that sat in each of the three time travellers pockets. Gwen looked down at the book in her hands and ushered another spell, in a flash of pink light, the scenery surrounding the trio shifted. They now stood in a room, the walls unrestricting and metallic, wide windows looked out on to the surrounding city and the complex controls in the centre of the room beeped systematically. Three people stood a little away from them, two young adults and a grey-haired man, each of them smiled as the man blew out the single candle on the cake that the younger two held up to him. Gwen raised her hand and waved. The younger female waved back, smiling. She set down the cake and approached them, they could see her more clearly now, she was beautiful, breathtakingly so. She had full lips, complemented by a soft pink gloss and high cheekbones her eye's shone a bright emerald green and were rimmed by a thick ray of black lashed, short crimson hair framed her face. She wore a black cat suit with a tiny blue tank top over it. She held a smooth elegance about her.

"Hello" she said taking one of Gwen's hands in her own "Hi Gwendolyn" Gwen replied, "Wait, What?" Kevin said, shocked "She's future me!" Gwen sang, "and that's future Ben and Future Grandpa" "Oh, I get it" Kevin smirked, "This is what you wanted to show me?" Older Ben and Max had joined them now, "No." Gwen turned to face him "That's what I wanted to show you." She pointed to the other side of the room, where yet another man stood, he was tall with raven black hair and equally dark eyes, a beard bristled around his chin, His build was strong and muscled, through his fingerless gloved hands his fists were clenched and his arms folded. He wore a pair of green army pants and a black T-shirt; clunky black boots covered his feet, giving him a look of aggressive mockery. Through all this the man bore an uncanny resemblance to Kevin. "Th-That's me?" Kevin gasped, Gwendolyn nodded "Yup" she smiled dazzlingly "That's my Kev" she extended her left hand for the time travelling trio to see, On her finger, the second from the left, sat a sparkling diamond ring, with a tint of pink set inside.

Gwen screamed and grasped her hand "No. Way. Seriously?" Gwendolyn nodded. Instantly they both clung to each other, and screamed while animatedly jumping on the spot. "Aww, Great. Does that mean I'm actually gonna be related to him!" Ben whined at his older self, Ben 10,000 nodded glumly "Yeah" he sighed "and the beast inside of her" "Hey!" Gwendolyn frowned, while Gwen gasped and stared down at her stomach, memorised. "She's pregnant?" Kevin asked, his eyebrows raised "Uh-huh" Kevin 11,000 said coming to join them and placing his hand on Gwendolyn's abdomen "Six weeks Baby!" he reached across and slapped him a High Five. Kevin mused over that for a while, allowing it to sink in before nodding smugly and yelling "Awesome!" as loud as his voice would let him while still sounding tough and manly. "Dude I know!" Kevin 11,000 shouted too "Alright, Alright" Gwendolyn shushed them, "Since you're here, you can help celebrate Grandpa's birthday with us" she led them, still holding Gwen's hand, over to Grandpa's colossal cake where she handed each of them a slice.

Both Ben's and Kevin's dug in immediately, Discussing Aliens, car's and Technology between themselves, Max took a few bites then left to back to his beloved motor home to grab his newest invention. Gwen and her older self took their time, sitting on one of the surprisingly comfortable carbon fibre benches and chatting happily. "Sorry" said Gwen "I don't mean to ruin a good day or anything..." "But?" Gwendolyn smiled "But, I was wondering why Ben got so obsessed with only being an Alien from the Omnitrix?" Gwendolyn sighed "It's not a very nice story" she warned, Gwen nodded "I wanna know" "OK, I'll tell you" she took Gwen's hand and led her over to another bench, far enough away so they wouldn't be over heard, "Just going to show her the targeting system" she said as they passed both Ben's and Kevin's. "You know Ben's girlfriend Julie, right?" she said one they were sitting, Gwen nodded "Ex-Girlfriend" she said sourly "Yes, Ex-girlfriend in your time, Well they got back together a little after they broke up" Gwendolyn said, trying to keep her voice level "And last year they got married, and Julie got pregnant." "Aww" Gwen cooed "Yeah, I know" Gwendolyn said, her voice changing to a sob.

"I don't see her around here, where is she?" Gwen asked "There was something a few months after, that." Gwendolyn ignored her question; a look of depressive nostalgia came over her face "Ben, Kevin and I were getting ready for work, Kev just got a big tip off about a weapons deal and we'd been assigned to check it out. Only this time was different, Julie wanted to come, and we couldn't stop her, no matter what we said or did, she was coming no matter what. So we got there and went inside, ready to bust them. Only there was nobody there, the place was deserted, there was only one energy signature in the entire drop point-" "But I thought you only used magic now" Gwen interrupted "No" Gwendolyn shook her head "I only did that because when I went back to get little us, she still used magic at the time" "Oh, carry on" "Thank you, The only energy signature I picked up was Albeto's, I tried to tell Ben, but he was a little busy. Then there was this beeping, he'd set up a bomb, I yelled that we should run, and we did. But only three of us got out. Then it was too late, The entire drop point lit up, while Julie and her kid were still inside." Gwen gasped, "Julie's dead?" Gwendolyn shook her head "Or so we thought, Ben got so depressed that he couldn't bear to be himself, in case he hurt anyone else." She sniffed, Gwen turned away and allowed a sob to wretch up her throat "But that's not the end of the story" Gwendolyn said thickly "Two months ago, I got a telepathic message from somebody." "Who?" "From Julie" "But I thought you said she was dead" "I thought she was" Gwendolyn sighed "But apparently not, so I arranged to meet up with her, just to be sure it wasn't someone trying to get a Ben. It wasn't, it was definitely Julie, I asked her all sorts of Questions that only Julie would know.

"I asked her how she got away, at first she was reluctant to tell me, but she eventually gave in, after a couple more meetings. She told me that while she and Ben were broken up, she'd met Albeto and they'd become in some way friends though I don't see how. And while she was dating Ben she'd been going to see him, because he was her 'Friend'" she air quoted the word "She said that one night they went out to dinner –Y'know, as friends do– and they got a little tipsy, I know Jules when she'd tipsy, so I figure that it mustn't have take alot of persuasion. Let's just say it resulted in Julie getting Pregnant." "What!" Gwen gasped "Yeah, apparently Ben's baby wasn't his, Anyway Julie didn't want to hurt Ben by running off with his arch enemy, so she and Albeto staged her death so she could go live with him" Gwendolyn concluded. Both she and Gwen stayed silent for awhile, unable to say any more. "I can't believe Julie would do something like that" said Gwen "I guess Albeto got to her or something." Gwendolyn replied, tears in her eyes "You can't treat her any different when you go back home, she hadn't really done anything yet so it wouldn't be fair." Gwen nodded slowly, understanding the reason "Oh, and also, don't tell Ben. It would crush him to find that out." Gwen nodded again, she didn't want to hurt her cousin "Can I tell Kevin?" "Yes, I already have, but be sure he doesn't tell anyone" "He won't." Gwen defended him. "I know" said Gwendolyn.

Soon after they rejoined the party, after reapplying their makeup and fixing their depressive appearance so that they looked happy. Max had returned from his Motor Home, and was displaying his newly created weapon and demonstrating how it worked. "Whoa, that's awesome Grandpa!" Ben said, followed by a mumble of agreement "Thank you," Max replied, flattered "it's just a prototype but it sure does the job" The rest of the party was enjoyable, filled with laughter and jokes about the old times, one's that the time travellers could understand. Eventually, once the city had gotten dark, it was time for them to return home. "Bye" Gwen smiled to her future self, as she opened another time portal "Laters man" Kevin smirked over his shoulder "See ya" Ben called "And I'm definitely gonna be ya" they vanished in a flash of pink light. "I like that kid" Ben 10,000 joked "he's got a good future ahead of him." A room full of laughter accompanied this.

"Thanks Gwen" Kevin said as soon as his feet touched the carpet, "That was awesome" he picked her up in his arms and spun her around, then set her down and kissed her. "No problem Kev, You needed cheering up anyway" "Yeah Gwen, that was so cool. I love my future self" said Ben, hugging her too, though his was in more friendly fashion. "Yeah" Kevin agreed "I rock! And by the looks of it you do too" he hugged her again. Gwen smiled "Yeah, something's I just can't wait for" _while something's I can. _She though sitting down on the couch nearest to her –pulling Kevin with her– and switched on the TV, deciding to wait for another day to spill all of the interesting details she had recovered in the past, or rather future hours to come.


End file.
